Sam Lloyd's journey from the Weston Playhouse to Hollywood

Jul. 19, 2013

Sam Lloyd and The Butties, a Beatles tribute band, play Magic Mountain in Londonderry. Lloyd, a Weston native, is also known for his role as Ted Buckland on the TV show 'Scrubs.' / Caleb Kenna for the Free Press

Douglas Gladstone

Free Press Correspondent

Sam Lloyd as Ted Buckland, the head of the legal affairs department, in a scene from the classic television show, 'Scrubs.' / COURTESY PHOTO

Sam Lloyd, left, appears as Ophelia in a Weston Playhouse production of 'Shakespeare Abridged'. Beside him is Tom Aulina as Polonius. / COURTESY PHOTO

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Remember attorney Ted Buckland, the head of the legal affairs department on the classic television show, “Scrubs”? The butt of many a joke, Buckland was a social outcast, a misfit and one of the most depressing characters ever concocted for the small screen.

As portrayed by Weston native Sam Lloyd, Jr., Ted’s level of self-confidence was so poor that he would routinely stand in front of a mirror and chant, "People are laughing with you. People are laughing with you. People are laughing with you.” Described by a bullying physician as the hospital sad sack, he once was asked why he only carried a smiley face button and a revolver in his briefcase.

"Well, one's in case I get sad," answered Buckland, “and the other's in case I get really sad."

Infamous for his clammy hands and sweaty brow, Buckland was also the sort of inept attorney who advised the doctors at the fictional New Sacred Heart to acknowledge mistakes to their patients only if they were already dead. "I'm not what you would call a winner,” he once admitted. “Oh sure, I'm a lawyer. But that's only because I took the test in Alaska and they only have four laws, most of which are about when you can, or cannot, kill seals".

But Buckland was more than a buffoon; thanks to Lloyd's acting, there was also an undeniable sweetness to the character that made viewers root for him. “No one ever wants the person who hurt them to ever see how badly they were hurt," said Ted in a rare, poignant moment.

So convincing was Lloyd in the role that, at a "Scrubs" wrap party one year, one of the film editors who he had never met mistook him for his television creation.

“He had a kind of bewildered expression on his face and was saying, ‘Wow, things must be going well for you,’ recalls the actor, whose uncle is “Taxi” and “Back to the Future” star Christopher Lloyd. “I was like, okay, what do you mean? He paused for a second and then said, ‘Oh, okay, I just realized, I only see you when you’re Ted!’”

“I’ll get the same look from people that recognize me occasionally,” continues Lloyd, whose father, Sam Lloyd, Sr., owned and operated the Weston Bowl Mill, a.k.a, the Vermont Wooden Bowl Mill Corporation, on Route 100 for three decades. “Unlike Ted, I’m generally a pretty positive, happy guy, my clothes fit me and I’m not pale and sweaty. But I lost my hair and know nothing about being a lawyer, so we do have that in common.”

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In character on stage

Lloyd does know a thing or two about performing, however, a fact which was evident when he and his Beatles cover band, The Butties, celebrated their 30th anniversary recently. The group staged two post- Independence Day concerts in Ludlow at the Jackson Gore Inn and Londonderry at Magic Mountain Resort’s Base Lodge.

“It's hard to believe it's been 30 years,” says Lloyd, who plays bass guitar in the band. “We've actually been together three times as long as the Beatles, but maybe we shouldn't be bragging about that.”

Though Lloyd is right handed, he taught himself how to play the bass left-handed “because that's how Paul McCartney does it.”

“At the time I really believed it felt more comfortable holding it left-handed, and insisted that’s why I did it,” continues Lloyd. “But looking back, I probably just wanted to be like Paul. I never reversed the strings so I still play upside-down.”

Lloyd says he and his fellow performers — Paul Perry, Mark Humble and Rob Morrey —“were a straight up tribute band” when the foursome formed the group at Syracuse University. “But then three out of the four of us lost our hair, so rather than invest in wigs, since we're notoriously cheap, we became a Beatles cover band,” he jokes.

“While we don’t try to look or talk like them, we still play the songs as faithfully as possible,” says Lloyd. The Butties, it should be pointed out, typically play 80 different songs during one of their performances, including the entire “A Hard Day’s Night” album.

As for the irony of a native New Engalnder performing in a Beatles cover band right around the time this nation celebrates its independence from the British, Lloyd kiddingly says that “I’ve been planning it since I was five years old! Finally, my scheme has come to fruition!”

Playhouse memories

Though he now makes his home in Los Angeles, Lloyd has many fond memories of his hometown.

“Of course you don’t really appreciate it at the time, but it was special,” says Lloyd of Weston. “In the 1960’s and 70’s the area was booming. It was a tourist destination in the winter for skiing, and in the summer busloads of tourists would inundate the town. I believe there were over 40 businesses in Weston alone at its peak.

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“It’s very different today, but it still has a timeless Brigadoon-like feeling to it,” he continues. “I start to go a little nuts if I’m away for too long.”

Similarly, Lloyd has a special place in his heart for the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, where his professional ambitions took root.

“The book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success,’ by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about the accident of being born at the right time and place as being instrumental to a person’s future, and that was definitely the case with the playhouse and myself,” acknowledges Lloyd. “The playhouse was evolving from a semi-professional summer theater into the professional Equity theater festival that it is today. I was lucky that I was able to grow with it. I learned so much there, not just on the main stage, but in the vaudeville-like after show in the basement as well.

“I learned and honed how to write and deliver comedy there,” continues Lloyd, who notes that he enjoys comedy which is “very character based. I also love word play and well thought out and executed slapstick. When you put those things together then you've really got something!”

Early influences

Though he has acted with his uncle, Christopher, in episodes of both “Malcolm in the Middle” and “The West Wing,” Lloyd says his parents were his most important influences. “I grew up watching them perform on the Weston Playhouse stage,” he says with pride.

“My dad introduced me to Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy films,” continues Lloyd, who says his brand of comedy was also influenced by such masters as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. “All that laid a nice foundation,” he says.

Not surprisingly, he also owns up to being a child of the TV generation. “Oh yeah. I grew up on all the greats — ‘Mary Tyler Moore,’ ‘All in the Family,’ ‘The Bob Newhart Show,’ ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’ ‘Rhoda,’ ‘Taxi,’ ‘Cheers,’ ‘Monty Python,’ and yes, ‘Gilligan’s Island’!,” says Lloyd, whose first regular job in series television was with “Rhoda” star Valerie Harper in the 1990 CBS comedy, “City.” On the show, which starred Harper as a city manager for a local government in an unnamed city, Lloyd played a creepy statistician; the program was canceled after only 13 episodes.

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Though plenty of roles in both the movies and television followed, it wasn’t until he landed the part of Buckland that Lloyd’s star really began to shine. Especially after "Scrubs"’ memorable May 14, 2002 episode.

That episode, in which Ted’s hospital band performs an a capella version of the theme song from the 1960s cartoon, “Underdog,” put the real life a capella quartet known as The Blanks — Lloyd, Perry, George Miserlis and Phillip McNiven — on the map. Called The Worthless Peons on the show, the group would appear in several more episodes of "Scrubs" over the ensuing seasons.

Besides “Underdog,” the group’s “Riding the Wave” CD features a capella versions of a number of television hits, including “Charles in Charge,” “Speed Racer,” “The Facts of Life” and “Those Were The Days” — the theme song from “All in the Family.”

The Blanks reunited on an episode of Courtney Cox’s “Cougar Town” last March.

Currently on hiatus following a two continent tour that took them to Europe (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark) and Australia last year, the group enjoys a cult status around the world.

A fact which would give even a misanthrope like Ted Buckland reason to smile.